Families thankful for farmland

Ted Hutten works his family farm field in this 2014 photo. Farmers in the Annapolis Valley now have the option to protect their farmland from future developments.

As farmers finish off their harvests and families across Nova Scotia tuck into their holiday feasts this weekend, an Annapolis Valley farmer is grateful for new ways for agricultural land to be protected for future generations.

“Typically, Kings County is the bread-basket of Nova Scotia, and our farmers are striving to grow safe and nutritious food,” said Marilyn Cameron of Hawthorn Hill Farm in Grafton.

Cameron and her husband operate a market garden farm with organic vegetables, garlic and berry crops, as well as free-range hens, fitting that in around their non-farm jobs.

It’s a busy life but she still manages to keep an ear to the ground about local farming and the availability of land.

Last month they donated a conservation easement to the Annapolis Valley Farm Trust, the first farm in Kings County to do so since the government passed the Community Easement Act in the spring of 2012. The easement will ensure that more than 20 acres of agricultural land remains available for farming forever, and that non-farming activities are restricted.

“The conservation easement for farms is pretty new for the province and I hope, now that we’re established, we can do a lot more,” said Brian Newcombe, a ninth-generation farmer on Cornwallis Farms and chairman of the Annapolis Valley Farm Trust.

“It’s a totally voluntary program but it’s also a lengthy process,” he said in an interview.

Established in 2009, he said they spent the first three years working with the province toward the community conservation legislation, and then after that they had to get their charitable status.

“It was only a year ago last spring that we could start to move forward.”

He said they’re on track to hit their goal of protecting 150 acres of farmland in the region before the end of 2016, and are negotiating for another 100 acres.

“Small-scale farming is on the rise,” said Cameron. “I’m always hearing of farmers looking for more land, including new young farmers.

“What is available, young farmers are having issues accessing it affordably while others are sitting on resources not being used. We shouldn’t trust that farmland will always be available to maintain the province’s food security.”

In Cameron’s opinion there are too many loopholes in the county’s Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use ByLaw.

“Farmland is constantly being depleted by non-agricultural development, and future generations of farmers will need affordable land to grow food on.”

The Nova Scotia Census of Agriculture of 2011 shows that at least 30 per cent of the almost 40,000 hectares of assessed farmland in Kings County is classified as inactive, “which means people are sitting on a resource not being used and tax isn’t getting paid on the land,” said Cameron.

In Annapolis County, that number grows to 40 per cent, although they have less than half the assessed farmland of Kings County.

New statistics are expected to be available by the spring of 2017.

Trish Javorek, manager of community development with the County of Kings, said the municipality’s draft planning strategy, Kings 2050, aims to reduce identified loopholes around agriculture lands from eight to two.

“We’re very excited about that,” she said, adding that staff feel confident about the balance they’ve struck between protection and economic development.

Javorek said she expects they will hold public input sessions for the planning draft during the early part of 2017.